marți, 3 februarie 2015

The Vipp Shelter

The recently revealed Vipp Shelter has deservedly earned the Wallpaper* Design Award 2015 for “Best Brand Extension”. Picture a setting in the depths of the wooded Swedish countryside, a remote and consummate Nordic lakeside getaway. Fixed deep within the deciduous woodland lies a shelter, the galvanized steel and glass form jutting from the forest floor. Its interior is illuminated by a warming glow and the entire structure is framed by the still and cold grey lake waters. The shelter, a welcome refuge from the bleak winter’s air, is a prefabricated entity created by Danish brand Vipp.

The shelter is constructed on a steel frame with a painted steel exterior, utilising a material that Vipp has 75 years of experience in processing. This steel is further replicated internally, found in the kitchen modules and many accessories. When asked “why a shelter”, Kasper Egelund, Vipp CEO and Holger’s grandson, remarks: “It’s the urge to do something better and different than what already exists out there… [it’s about] developing functional tools based on the knowledge of 75 years of steel manufacturing, where functional requirements and material processing define the form.”

The Vipp Shelter is 55m2 with an attic; a prefabricated entity, its design is definitive. It contains a large kitchen with a dining and living area, a hall, separate bathroom and bed loft space. Vipp envisaged the shelter more as a product than a piece of architecture, a “tool” that opens the door to a natural escape. Morten Bo Jensen, Vipp’s chief designer, explains: “We see the house as a product (such as a caravan, yacht, private jet, etc.) and not as a piece of architecture – hence also the name ‘shelter’… the design is completely fixed [and] everything down to the smallest detail is designed in advance.”